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Monday, February 10, 2014

Codevilla--"Live Not By Lies"

Angelo M. Codevilla has, once again, written a compelling piece on the ongoing usurpation of our government.

Being human, politicians lie. Even in the best regimes. The distinguishing feature of totalitarian regimes however, is that they are built on words that the rulers know to be false, and on somehow constraining the people to speak and act as if the lies were true. Thus the people hold up the regime by partnering in its lies. Thus, when we use language that is “politically correct” – when we speak words acceptable to the regime even if unfaithful to reality – or when we don’t call out politicians who lie to our faces, we take part in degrading America.

As a case-in-point, he cites Bill O'Reilly's failure to tell Obama that he (Obama) was lying by stating that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" as to the IRS targeting conservative groups. Rather, to add insult to injury, O'Reilly said that Obama's "heart is in the right place."

I have written in this space: “Obama’s premeditated, repeated, nationally televised lies… are integral, indeed essential, to his presidency and to the workings of the US government.” They are neither innocent opinions nor mistakes. Rather, they grab for power by daring the listener to call them what they are. Failure to do so, never mind gratuitously granting them bona fides, is redefining our regime.

... For ordinary Americans, calling the regime’s lies by their name, deviating from political correctness, carries far stiffer penalties, because the regime has labeled each such deviation as an antisocial pathology: racism, sexism, homophobia, islamophobia, “denialism,”etc., any of which mark you as an opponent of those who count. They may fire you, pass you over, or just exclude you from that to which you wish to be included.

This is new and incomplete. But only in America. It is the very routine, the very constitution, of totalitarian society. ...

Codevilla recommends that we start calling out the lies as we here them. To walk out of speeches and lectures and movies that preach the lies.